With its stunning natural beauty, safe cities, and high quality of life, New Zealand is one of the most desirable destinations for expats around the world.
In this guide, we’ll walk you through everything you need to know about relocating to the New Zealand from a personal tax perspective, including tax residency, income tax, special tax regimes and tax return obligations.
TaxPilot recommend that you organize your affairs in good time to get ahead and make the most of favorable tax treatment while making sure you’re meeting your tax return obligations.
New Zealand follows a residence taxation model. If you are resident, you will pay tax worldwide incomes. If you are non-resident, you will pay tax on local incomes only.
if you spend more than 182 days in New Zealand during any 12 month period.
if you have a permanent abode in New Zealand during the tax year.
Providing that you are considered a transitional resident, your foreign incomes and gains will be exempt from New Zealand taxation for four years. You will be considered a transitional resident if you have been non-resident for 10 consecutive years prior to your arrival to New Zealand. New Zealand can be a very tax efficient place to live for expats and nomads and as such, Global Tax Consulting recommends seeking personalized tax planning advice to take advantage of the special tax regime.
Exempt from New Zealand taxation.
Applied for four years.
Tax on property and share sales
Tax on value of owned assets
Tax on assets passed to heirs
Tax to contribute to state welfare
If you receive incomes overseas while you are living in New Zealand, you may find the source country, as a starting point, continues to tax the income which may cause double taxation unless you are using special tax regime.
Double taxation agreements can be used to mitigate double taxation and receive tax free income. As such, the more double taxation agreements a country has, the better, as agreements will ensure you’re not taxed twice and even better, ensure your income is tax free.
At present, New Zealand has 41 double taxation agreements signed.
